After the “adventure” that was yesterday, today is starting off really well.

Deadlifts went well. First set felt like “oh, this is going to suck”, but second set was awesome and it just went well from there. The last pull was a little off, but not really. Thing is, I’m finding myself trying to get a better groove in my pulls — more of that “pushing the floor away from you” sort of thing. I’m finding that I’m doing a better job at being “centered” and pulling whole-body, not just with my back (which is stronger, relative to everything else). The bar path is a bit better, closer to the body, scraping my shins — it’s good. But that last pull kinda reverted to my old form, so it felt like a “bad pull”. And afterwards I realized I double-overhanded it too… which wasn’t my plan but I did and was happy with. Goes to show how much I’ve been away from deadlifting.

Chins were awesome. I got 8 on my first set — I’ve never done that. 10 is within reach.

Good mornings still feel awkward to me, but I might be starting to get it. Going to 165 felt too heavy, but in doing so I got a better feel for perhaps how things should be going. Plus you really do appreciate that there’s a LOT of abs involved here. I’m semi-tempted to keep doing GM’s, just to try to get better at them and see what they can do for me.

So, really a good day. More reps all around, more weight. Geez, I can’t complain.

AND… I start my cut on Tuesday. I’m looking forward to it in terms of the recomp, but not in terms of the forthcoming 3-4 months of perpetual hunger. But I know it’s for a short time, it’ll be awesome at the end, and then at the end I’ll get to start on a bigger path — about which I’m very excited.

• Deadlift
• 185 x 5
• 225 x 4
• 255 x 3
• 290 x 2
• 315 x 1
• 320 x 1
• 340 x 1
• Chin Up
• bw x 8
• bw x 5
• bw x 3
• bw x 3
• bw x 3
• Good Mornings
• 95 x 5
• 135 x 5
• 165 x 5
• BB Curls
• 45 x 20
• 45 x 20
• 45 x 15
• 45 x 12
• 45 x 12

I do like pause squats.

Gah — did I just say I like squatting? I guess the day was coming. 🙂

Simple enough. Did my thing. Pause squats went well — and I really find they help me drill in form and technique more than regular squatting. A hint for myself I guess.

Very high rep sets are killer… painful.

No lunges. Yesterday I started having some foot pains, cramping. Between that and the lack of sleep I’ve been getting, I figured to not dig my recovery hole any deeper and just skipped them.

• Pause Squats
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 4
  • 185 x 3
  • 205 x 3
  • 215 x 3
• Leg Extensions
  • 60 x 30
  • 60 x 26
  • 60 x 20
  • 60 x 17
  • 60 x 16
• Leg Curls
  • 25 x 20
  • 25 x 20
  • 25 x 17
  • 25 x 16

Like it or not, I’m learning something.

So this LRB template is alright, but I don’t think it’s an ideal setup for me. There’s a lot of good I’m getting from it. For example, that crazy trap pump? The lateral raises — never did them for 20 reps, and really pushed hard to get those reps. Never thought lat raises would hit the traps so well either.

I’m finding that isolation stuff up to 20 reps is working well, and that I need to push harder. That I’ll feel a point where my body wants to stop, and I should stop — just for 1-2 seconds — then keep going. If I do that, it’s still good progress and gets by that burn, and I can see there’s still more gas in the tank. There certainly comes a point where I truly cannot move the weight any more and THEN I can stop. I just don’t always care for super-high-rep sets, so yeah, I’m learning something.

Another thing is that perhaps longer rest periods have their place, even if I’m trying for hypertrophy. Traditionally the notion is about 1 minute max of rest between sets. Well, when I was doing Inception, Paul would have 2-3 minutes sometimes even between higher-rep sets. There was something to that. Today, a few of the sets wound up being like 50% sets — I pushed to failure on 1 set, then the next set I only got 50% after only 1 minute of rest. It’s kinda akin to the 350 method approach. So, some interesting insight, that sometimes with the higher stuff, to get that level of volume in, a little more rest would be OK.

But I’m also finding this specific template layout isn’t for me. I’ve said before that I get a lot of “push” work but not a lot of chest work.

Anyways, it’s been good for what it is, and I think I can take something from the theory and structure.

Going forward tho… I’ve only got about a week left before starting the cut diet again. I’ll finish out this template for the remaining 2 weeks (after this week), and after that I don’t know. I’m flip-flopping between doing a Basebuilding approach or just going right into a mass building type of program. What hit me is that I’ve been doing a lot of pre-set programs, which has been good because it forces me to try things I may not normally try and thus I learn from it. So it’s all good. But I know that after I finish this cut, I want to stop all the boy recomp and work towards my 3/4/5 goal — and that is likely to be nothing but pre-set programs (I’m strongly considering going back to 5/3/1). So part of me is thinking that I’d like to have some free-form fun — just know that today I’m working X and just do whatever. Yeah there’ll be some structure of course, but I’d like to just fully create my own things. Not sure.. still tossing around the notions. I’ve got a couple weeks yet to figure it out.

• Seated DB Press
  • 15e x 20
  • 20e x 20
  • 25e x 20
  • 30e x 20
  • 30e x 12
  • 30e x 9
• Incline Bench
  • 75 x 20
  • 75 x 10
  • 65 x 10
• DB Lat Raises
  • 10e x 20
  • 10e x 20
  • 10e x 20
  • 10e x 20
  • 10e x 16
• Pushdowns
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 16
  • 40 x 12

A “light back/pull” day it was.

So the RDL’s I went light on, trying to just make sure I’m getting form right. Am I? Well, I believe I’m doing it like everyone says to, but I just don’t “feel” it. I feel like I want to or should go lower, but then it starts to get into stiff-leg territory, tho I know that’s a different movement — that’s more back hinge than a hip thrust. Still….

Otherwise, things are what they are. Lots and lots of reps….

I’m not 100% sure how well it all goes for me here. I do appreciate this template because while I do get mighty sore, I’m not feeling as beat-up. Is that so much the template? or that I only hit the gym now 3x and keeping the sessions to about an hour (but working hard for that hour). Dunno.

But anyways… 209 this morning. Weight is holding steady as it should. The cut starts again soon….

• Romanian Deadlifts
  • 135 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 225 x 5
• Cable Rows
  • 70 x 20
  • 80 x 20
  • 90 x 20
  • 100 x 13
  • 100 x 11
• Hyperextensions
  • bw x 15
  • bw x 12
  • bw x 10
  • bw x 10
• DB Curls
  • 20e x ??? (I was distracted blew my count, so I just kept going until I couldn’t)
  • 25e x 15
  • 30x x 10

You know, it’s all good until the split squats. Those just suck. 🙂

That groove-finding with my squat, in terms of speed, is coming along. Not too slow, not too fast. Finding what’s right for me in terms of how fast I go down so that the hole and direction change still gets some stretch-reflex but isn’t some massive momentum change. I’m also finding myself being a little more upright and my quads are getting more into it than hip drive — and certainly, I can find myself making a conscious effort to drive from hips or quads, it’s kinda cool.

The smith hacks continue to be interesting… not really sure if they’re getting me anything.

But split squats… these are a motherfucker. I hate ’em. But they are very good for me; I can’t deny that.

In other news, it looks like just a couple more weeks of enjoyment, then it’s back on the cut diet. I’m hovering in the 210 range right now, and we’re going to work down to the 190 range, so probably 3-4 months. Personally I want it closer to 3 as 4 starts to sacrifice other things. So, this times out pretty decent with the template I’m on. I’ll finish out the full 6-week cycle of LRB here but what to do after that I’ve only started to think about. I certainly want to stay on 3x/week as that’s providing me better recovery — and with the stress at work right now, I need all the recovery and sleep I can get. I thought I might try 4-6 weeks of a Base Building type approach, of moderate weights and higher reps, especially while I still have a decent food intake. Then shift to whatever diet dicates later on.

We’ll see.

Ah food… you were fun while you lasted. 😉

• Squats
  • 150 x 5
  • 175 x 4
  • 205 x 3
  • 230 x 2
  • 245 x 1
  • 270 x 1
  • 275 x 1
• Smith Machine Hack Squats
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 115 x 10
  • 135 x 10
• Leg Press
  • 135 x 10
  • 225 x 10
  • 275 x 10
  • 315 x 10
• Split Squats
  • bw x 20
  • bw x 20
  • bw x 12
  • bw x 12

Starting the second round on the LRB template.

So, back to 1-A, “Press, Heavy”. All in all, the day went well. Weights and reps up, feeling good.

I have noticed that on this template I’m getting a lot of pressing work in, but not a lot of “chest” work in. We’ll see how that pans out long-term. Honestly, with the way the diet is going to be going here, I reckon that once I finish this one round of the LRB template, I’ll be rotating off it to a more “pure hypertrophy” type of programming, because I’m sure I’ll be back on a cutting diet. We shall see.

To that end… I’m at 208-209 — I dropped almost 3 pounds in 1 week. So I expect we’ll be upping the diet plan because for sure as-written it’s not enough to sustain me. Like I said, I’ve been very loose and “cheating” constantly to get and keep my weight up, but we need to get it dialed in so we can know exactly where to start from to make the cut happen. That said tho, I actually wondered if we might as well start the cut now. I have a good start here. 😉 why not just keep going? Honestly. I’ll go with Nick’s recommendations, but I did toss that out there… and frankly, I’d be fine with it if we did.

• Behind-the-Neck Press (seated, smith machine)
  • bar x 5
  • 65 x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 120 x 5
  • 120 x 5
  • 120 x 5
• Bench Press
  • 125 x 5
  • 145 x 4
  • 170 x 3
  • 185 x 2
  • 200 x 1
  • 210 x 1
  • 225 x 1
• Upright Rows
  • 85 x 10
  • 85 x 10
  • 85 x 10
  • 85 x 10
  • 85 x 10
• Overhead Extensions
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 20

That didn’t feel like much.

But then, it stands to reason. This is session 3-B “Back, Heavy” — so, deadlift.

I haven’t (conventional) deadlifted since I think September, so I have no real idea where I was. I picked some reasonable numbers, plugged them into the Strong-15 percentage tables, and away I went. It didn’t feel like much, but week 1 of the cycle is quite light when you look at the numbers. Either way, a good way to break myself back into things.

Happy to be doing chin-ups again. I missed them.

Good mornings are a movement I’ve never liked. But I’ve been watching good technique videos on it, and figured I’ll go light, make sure I figure the movement out and really work to do it right. I’ll make something out of it!

Anyways, the past 2 weeks are a good start to things. My body is having some extreme DOMS from all of this, because it is a lot of and different work. The additional rest is good — I’m not feeling so worn out, tho I do have a little bit of “the crud” that’s going around right now so I am a little worn down from that. But all in all good.

On the weight front – down to 210. I am wondering if I’ll be 209 come Sunday, at the rate things are going. If so, I’m OK with that because that means moar food. 😉

• Deadlift
  • 145 x 5
  • 185 x 4
  • 225 x 3
  • 255 x 2
  • 290 x 1
  • 315 x 1
  • 330 x 1
• Chin ups
  • bw x 7
  • bw x 4
  • bw x 4
  • bw x 3
  • bw x 3
• Good Mornings
  • bar x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 135 x 5
• BB Curls
  • 45 x 20
  • 45 x 18
  • 45 x 15
  • 45 x 10
  • 45 x 10

Paul’s right: This will suck if you’re not used to it. 🙂

Today is 2-B “Legs, Light” of the template. Indeed, it is “light”, but there’s a lot of volume and yeah… it sucks since I’m not used to it. 🙂

Pause squats. These went fine. Really had a chance to dial in form. One interesting thing was with unracking the bar and some improved chest position — both angle, how much air was in there, being “big”, hard to convey it, but it was a small thing that made a big difference. Going to try to continue exploring this.

That said, I wonder if I’m too light on the pause squats. I’m using Paul’s Strong-15 squat template (as per), and using the percentages listed there. Thing is, the pauses were very light today, even for triples. Now, it could be that I’m just at the start of things, so deal with it. But also, Paul is likely setting those percentages when the pause squats are used as back-off sets after a bunch of heavier squats — so you’re going to be tired, you don’t need as much weight. Not sure, we’ll see. Likely won’t matter much.

The extensions and curls? All I can say is that yes, this is where the suck comes if you’re not used to the volume. Gah.

Lunges were done walking. Nothing much to report there.

A light day, but still a good bit of work.

In other news… I’ve been hanging in the 209-211 weight range for a little bit. Nick and I are working to firm things up now so I can enter a formal mid. I’ve been very loose with the diet the past couple months because… I needed the mental break. I have a plan and have followed it generally, but have been happy to eat a little more here, some cheese there, etc.. And even then it’s been a little bit of work to get me back to 210-ish. So time to formalize things. I’m spending this week following my existing plan strictly to see what happens. So far I’ve lost about a pound and wouldn’t be surprised if I was at 209 on Sunday — which means the strict plan needs to be upped in order for me just to mid! But that’s what we want to find out, because we need to know strictly where things lie so I can mid properly and then start the cut. I’m not totally looking forward to the cut, but I am looking forward to the results.

Long term thinking? I suspect after I do this cut I’m going to be pretty happy with my body comp (tho who knows for sure — will see when I get there). If all is good enough, I want to formally start my quest for my next goal, which is the 3-4-5 bench-squat-dead. But… first things first.

• Pause Squats
  • 135 x 5
  • 155 x 4
  • 175 x 3
  • 190 x 3
  • 200 x 3
• Leg Extensions
  • 60 x 30
  • 60 x 24
  • 60 x 20
  • 60 x 16
  • 60 x 14
• Leg Curls
  • 25 x 20
  • 25 x 20
  • 25 x 20
  • 25 x 16
• Walking Lunges
  • BW x 20 strides
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20

Light, but painful.

Today is session 1-B, “Press Light”. The “light” days aren’t wussy days — only the weights feel that way. They are lighter weights, but many more reps. And I tell you, when you work that many reps, that little rest between sets, the cumulative fatigue is surprising. I really overestimated things today.

DB pressing… I thought I could do X, but no… not 20 reps of X. I wound up dropping weights just to ensure I could get the reps in. I figured then my incline benching needed to drop down but oh, even overestimated that and had to drop even more. Again, the weights seemed stupid light, but man, by the time I got to inclines my triceps were pretty exhausted. It was crazy.

Speaking of crazy: lateral raises. When I do these, I try to twist my hands forward, like I’m holding a pitcher and pouring the liquid out. I forgot who said to do them that way (Arnold?), but I felt that was good to do else my hands would tilt back, thumbs pointing more towards the ceiling than the floor, and that’d hit even more of my anterior delts which I’ve already been trashing: ensure the medials and posterior get some love. Well, after I finished I looked in the mirror. Holy crap! I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen a trap pump that huge. It was nuts! Hooray lots of reps.

And pressdowns. I used to really love using the rope, but I find that I can get more out of using other bars. There’s just something about the rope and I don’t get as much work on the triceps as I can with other bars. Ah well, no big. Just something confirmed I guess.

It may have been a “light” day, but I’m pretty sure DOMS will hit me pretty hard later. 🙂

• Seated DB Press
  • 20e x 20
  • 25e x 20
  • 30e x 20
  • 40e x 12
  • 35e x 9
  • 25e x 13
• Incline Bench Press
  • 115 x 6
  • 85 x 12
  • 75 x 16
  • 75 x 12
• DB Lateral Raises
  • 8e x 20
  • 8e x 20
  • 8e x 20
  • 8e x 20
  • 8e x 20
• Rope-Handle Pressdowns
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 15
  • 35 x 15
  • 35 x 12

That was different.

This is session 3-A “Back Light” on the LRB template. And for sure, light it was, tho still some work I’m sure my lower back is going to be feeling DOMS mid-weekend. 🙂

RDL’s. I had no idea what weight to use, so I just picked things. I shouldn’t have done that. Instead, I should have started at 135, concerned myself more with technique, then work the weight up from there to whatever is right. i.e. get the most out of the light weight, get the most out of the form. I went 275 and I certainly became more concerned with the weight than technique, despite trying to focus on technique all the way up. So I dropped back to 225 and tried to just be all about the form. Still, next time I’m going to start at 135 and if I stay there the whole time but get form dialed in, I’ll take that.

Rows. I forgot that last time I did these I was taking longer rest periods. I’m trying to keep things at about 1 minute between sets across the whole session. So all I need here is a little adjustment of weight.

Hypers. I hate these, but oh, they felt alright. Here’s where the DOMS is going to come from. Trying to do them focusing on the erectors: let the torso “relax/unwind” at the bottom, then focus just on contracting the erectors to come up. Sure, other muscles are still involved, and no I don’t get up as high as if I was really trying to focus on glutes/hams, but that’s ok as I’m trying to make this more a back exercise.

And curls are curls.

Anyways, so a bunch of adjusting needed, but good stuff. I’m curious to see how the heavy back day plays out, and how the whole 2-week: heavy/heavy/light light/light/heavy plays out. So far I am feeling more rested, which I’m happy with.

• Romanian Deadlifts
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 275 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 225 x 5
• Cable Rows
  • 80 x 20
  • 90 x 20
  • 100 x 15
  • 110 x 12
  • 120 x 9
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
• DB Curls
  • 20e x 15
  • 25e x 15
  • 30e x 9